Op Pro to Stay in Huntington Beach as Qualifying Event
John Warner, Ocean Pacific’s chief executive officer, said Tuesday that the Op Pro surfing championships will continue at the Huntington Beach Pier next year, but not as a world championship tour event.
The Op Pro, which is in its 12th year at the Huntington Beach Pier, will continue as a world qualifying event, Warner said.
The contest is in its first year as a $60,000 four-star qualifying event after 10 years as a world championship event. The Op was a specialty team event last year, dropping off the Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ world tour in 1992 after its title sponsor filed for protection from creditors.
“We’ll still have the event next year,” Warner said. “But the schedule is still up in the air. We would like to put some distance between us and the World Championship Tour event.”
That’s because Op officials don’t want the contest to conflict with the $130,000 U.S. Open of Surfing, which has been added to the world tour for 1994. The U.S. Open is tentatively scheduled for July 27-Aug. 10 at the Huntington Beach Pier.
Joe Adams, Op contest coordinator, said the U.S. Open claimed the only U.S. mainland spot on the world tour for 1994. That left the Op without a world tour date to claim because ASP rules allow only one per country, with a maximum of 12 events total.
“There’s no way we could have it (a world tour event) even if we wanted to,” Adams said.
Op dropped off the world tour in 1992 and failed to meet the $150,000 purse ($125,000 in prize money and $25,000 sanctioning fee) after filing for protection from creditors.
Adams said the contest could meet the prize money in the future, but “Op is satisfied with the $85,000 in prize money.”
The U.S. Open of Surfing, sponsored by Prime Ticket Properties, secured the world tour spot at the ASP meetings last December. The event’s late July-early August dates were held by the Op Pro up until 1992.
“The fact that the world championship tour is coming to California next year is very important,” Warner said. “It will raise the level of interest (in surfing) again.”